Posts from — November 2004

Click for 1024 X 768 desktop background image

More autumn colors in Kyoto, Momiji and momiji bonsai in my neighborhood.

http://www.j-blog.com/movies/kibune2004.rm (15 MB RealVideo download).

Five minutes of handheld video clips of our little jaunt upriver to see the Momiji in Kibune on Monday.

Sorry, my blog spam countermeasures are stopping me from linking out to the other site where I am storing the file, so you’ll have to copy-paste it.

Here is a picture I took in 1997 showing what the Kibune River looks like in summer, with tatami platforms stretched across the water. After hiking over Kurama in the heat of Kyoto, having a Japanese ryokan lunch here, sitting just above the surface of the rushing river and dangling your feet in the water, is an unforgettable experience. It was about ¥6,500 each plus drinks at the place we went, Nakayoshi.

Beniya Ryokan entrance and Kibune River accents.

Click for 1024 X 768
As the source of Kyoto’s main river, the Kamogawa, is near here, Kibune Shrine goes back to the early days of Kyoto, and is the place to pray for a steady but not excessive supply of water. The Emperor in the ancient capital would send a rider on a black horse (representing rain clouds) up to Kibune Jinja to pray for rain when the crops needed it, and a white horse to pray for respite from the deluges of rainy season.

Above the magnificent lantern-lined steps, the small shrine is under some reconstruction now, but look for the cast-metal horses decorating Kibune shrine.

More about kibune on alive in kyoto.
kibune town site (Japanese).

The view through the “Panorama Car” on the Eizan Railway (left) into the mountains in northeastern Kyoto; Kibune-guchi Station at night (right).

(I’ll add more photos later.)

in Kurashiki.

Every year in the autumn leaf viewing season several temples have night viewing hours with artful illumination of the leaves. I was invited yesterday to a party hosted by Son of Soy blogger Rick and his girlfriend/master chef Mari, and ate and drank much more than my fill after leaf viewing in the lovely garden at Enkoji Temple in Sakyo-ku, which was certainly much, much less crowded than the bigger temples in Higashiyama-ku. There was ghostly shakuhachi music coming from somewhere out in the mist, and patches of illumination would very slowly fade in and out, highlighting the foreground, middleground, deep background or sometimes just a small stand of trees or bamboo. You become an aesthete just by watching. Thanks Rick and Mari, will pay back.